The two senators met with Commodity Future Trading Commission chair Gary Gensler in a closed meeting Thursday to discuss what steps the regulatory agency will take to halt oil speculation. Sanders exited the meeting unimpressed, he said, over the priority Gensler is giving the matter.

“I was disappointed by the tone of the meeting,” Sanders said, adding that the chairman showed a “lack of urgency” to address energy speculation. “We need action and we need action now.”

Cantwell threatened congressional action if the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fails curb oil speculation. She declined to say what Congress would do to the regulatory agency but said it could be similar to when lawmakers demanded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission create a market monitoring and mitigation program when Enron, the Houston energy-trading firm, collapsed a decade ago.

A spokesperson for the commission did not return a request for comment.

The Wall Street financial regulation law enacted last summer required the CFTC to restrict the amount of oil that speculators could trade on the energy futures market. The commission failed to meet the Jan. 22 deadline the law required, a point of criticism against the agency by Cantwell. She said the commission should already have a plan to combat the rising costs of oil and gasoline.

“America is running out of gas partly because of high fuel costs,” she said. “The CFTC needs to do something about that. There should be even more urgency to act.”

The CFTC charged several oil traders Tuesday with allegedly manipulating prices in the crude oil market from January to April in 2008. The companies involved in the cross-market trading scheme earned more than $50 million in illegal profits, the commission said.

Sanders said this progress is good but too slow. Americans, he added, do not want to wait three years for speculators who are driving up costs today to be charged.

“What the American people want is action now,” he said. “They want prices down now, not three years from now.’’

Lawmakers have been pressuring the commission for action as the price for a barrel of crude oil hovers in the $100 range. A bipartisan group of 17 senators called on federal regulators this month to fast-track rules that would rein in speculation in West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures.

In response to the senators’ letter, Gensler said Monday the commission would make a final rule after reviewing the 12,000 comments the agency received after proposing position limits on 28 commodities in January.

The supply of crude oil in the U.S. is higher than it was two years ago. That, coupled with a decrease in demand, means the price of crude should be falling, Sanders said. While testifying in front of the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month, the CEO of Exxon Mobil stopped short of blaming speculators for high oil prices but said if based only on the laws of supply and demand, crude oil would be between $60 to $70 a barrel. A U.S. Energy Department report Wednesday said a barrel of crude oil costs just more than $100.

The CFTC bucked suggestions in 2008 that oil speculation was driving up market costs. In a report the agency said it “does not support the proposition that speculative activity has systematically driven changes in oil prices.” The agency said then that the price of crude oil_over $140 a barrel at the time — was due to market supply and demand.